No campaign, lots of funds

Monday

Sep 10, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 10, 2012 at 11:53 AM

A stay at the Ritz Carlton in Arlington, Va., more than $6,000 in airfare, and almost $10,000 to cater various events and dinners. After announcing his retirement from Congress effective at the end of December, Rep. Steve Austria had $419,374 in his campaign fund.

Emily Wilkins, The Columbus Dispatch

A stay at the Ritz Carlton in Arlington, Va., more than $6,000 in airfare, and almost $10,000 to cater various events and dinners.

After announcing his retirement from Congress effective at the end of December, Rep. Steve Austria had $419,374 in his campaign fund. But despite no longer having a campaign to run, he continues to spend campaign money, Federal Election Commission records show.

Candidates have plenty of leeway under federal rules in how they can use campaign donations, as long as they do not use the funds for personal use. So the largesse of Austria, as well as other Ohio members of Congress no longer in a race, is legal.

Still, disclosure laws leave a lot in the dark, said Bill Allison, editorial director for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan organization supporting transparency in government and politics.

“This is one of the problems with reporting how (political action committees) and campaigns spend money. They can just say travel, they don’t have to say it’s for a fundraising event or expenses for fundraising,” Allison said.

“It’s not always clear.”

The disclosure forms submitted to the Federal Election Commission list general categories of expenses but do not have to go into further detail about what campaign funds were spent on.

For example, the records show that Austria, a Springfield Republican, has spent more on air fare and lodging in the six months after he dropped out than the six months before.

But the forms don’t show where he’s flown and when.“

There is no restriction on what kind of fundraising they do,” Allison said. “Someone could travel to Hawaii in the middle of the winter and hold a fundraiser there.”

Campaign spokesman Tyler Grassmeyer said Austria is paying for flights to Washington, D.C., and back with the campaign funds rather than his congressional allowance. Disbursements from the U.S. House of Representatives shows Austria’s expenditure on travel in the first six months of the year was down from last year, but up from what he spent in the first six months of 2010.

Austria has also used his campaign funds to help local, state and other candidates, Grassmeyer said.

“(Austria) plans to stay active in politics and support local candidates in Ohio,” he said, noting the funds go toward helping candidates raise funds, organize volunteers and fill other needs.

“It’s not the most ethical use of campaign funds, but you can use it to live a pretty high life,”

But Mark Weaver, a longtime GOP political consultant, said the money is the donor’s to give to the candidate.

“When they give it to that committee, they’re basically saying, ‘We trust you to use your best judgment and pay for things they think they are important,’??” he said.

Austria isn’t the only Ohio member of Congress who will be using campaign funds to influence politics after they are no longer an elected official.

The campaign of Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich is another well-funded vehicle that no longer has a driver — the 15-year Democratic congressman from Cleveland lost his re-election bid in March. But Kucinich transformed his campaign into a political action committee last month. Since the end of May, he has donated to mostly Democratic, non-incumbent candidates.

“It’s basically a way to stay active in supporting progressive candidates across the country for election,” said Kucinich’s campaign treasurer, Donald J. McTigue. McTigue added that all spending until the first week of July — such as $949 on travel expenses, $464 lodging and $145 on flowers — were to wind down the campaign and pay off debts related to the primary.

Both Austria’s and Kucinich’s campaign officials have pointed out that winding down a campaign doesn’t happen in a day — leases have to run out on campaign offices and some bills and expenses won’t be due for a while after they’re incurred.

McTigue said bills paid in April (event tickets), May (door repair) or even June (hall rental) related back to expenses for the primary or the general wind down of the campaign. He estimated that it can take up to six months for campaigns to finish paying off things such as rents on building with leases that could go on for months after a campaign.

Rep. Jean Schmidt — the other Ohio incumbent who lost in the primary — has had fewer expenditures in the four months after the election than Kucinich or Austria. Her last campaign payment was in early June. Although the campaign has $184,150 of debt, it is from Schmidt’s loans to her own campaign.

Rep. Steve LaTourette, who dropped his re-election bid last month, had $615,445 of cash on hand and no debts a month before he left the race. His campaign did not return requests for an interview.

Allison said campaign-finance reform could shed more light on how funds are used, but he doesn’t think that’s likely to happen anytime soon.

“People responsible for giving us more information are those with an invested interest in keeping it quiet,” he said.

ewilkins@dispatch.com

@emrwilkins

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